April 22, 1909] 



NA TURE 



213 



.l.V AJLAS OF THE EMPIRE. 

 The British Empire (and Japan). Its Features, 

 Kcsources, Commerce, Industries, and Scenery 

 togetlter with the Pliysical and Economic Conditions 

 of the World. By W. Bisiker. 213 maps and 272 

 illustrations. (London : The Geographical Publishing 

 Company, 1909.) Price iZ. u. net. 



THE author offers this volume " as a contribution 

 to ' Education and the Empire,' " and since his 

 contribution has taken the shape of an atlas, presum- 

 ably he had in view geographical education. Now 

 while the British Empire, as such, might well enter 

 into college or university curriculum as an historical 

 subject, it cannot be treated in a geographical course. 

 The Empire is not a geographical unity ; from a 

 geographer's point of view it is a heterogeneous collec- 

 tion of the whole or parts of widely different natural 

 regions. We must treat of fragments, large or small, 

 ■of tropical West Africa, of an isolated scrap of South 

 America, and a similar arbitrary selection from other 

 continents. The majority of the colonies and depend- 

 encies of the Empire cannot be geographically treated 

 apart from the regions to which they belong. To 

 attempt to carry the criterion of political ownership 

 into geography is, to say the least, unscientific. The 

 author admits the necessity of considering the economic 

 productions of the entire world as a basis for the study 

 of British trade. In that he is right, but surely the 

 only true understanding of the Empire and the right 

 conception of its place in the world must be reached 

 through a study of the geography of the entire globe. 



However, if this atlas falls short of educational 

 requirements it will certainly prove of great service as 

 a work of reference, especially for commercial pur- 

 poses. Each of the large regions within the British 

 Empire has two maps devoted to it, a photo- 

 relief map and an ordinary political one. The former 

 are finely executed and very instructive, but we doubt 

 if they have as great a value as good contour maps. 

 However, the physical names which they bear have 

 been wisely chosen, and — a feature of geographical 

 value — the railways are shown in relation to the surface 

 relief. Submarine relief is well portrayed in these 

 maps. In addition there are pressure, temperature, 

 and rainfall maps, and various small economic charts 

 for each region, all crowded with information graphic- 

 ally or statistically displayed. Each colony is illustrated 

 by several small views, but these have often more 

 artistic than scientific value. A number of general 

 physical and economic charts of the world, most of 

 which are too crowded and small to be instructive, 

 complete the atlas, except for two pages devoted to 

 Japan. We do not understand why that country alone 

 of extra-British lands should have been included. The 

 author would surely have been better advised to in- 

 clude the United States of America as a country the 

 commercial interests of which lie nearest to those of 

 Britain. 



The statistical information, if rather condensed and 

 summary, seems to be thoroughly up-to-date, and, so 

 far as we have tested it, accurate. But a little expan- 

 sion in this direction might not have been out of place. 

 The bare statement, for instance, regarding Ireland's 

 total trade, that it was in IQ07 17,767,657/., might be 

 NO. 2060, VOL. 80] 



misleading without a qualifying note that this refers 

 only to trade with lands beyond the British Isles. In 

 reality Ireland's total trade was (1906) more than six 

 times that figure. The index to commercial products 

 is too meagre to be of much use, and should have 

 been considerably expanded. 



One or two minor errors should be pointed out. 

 The South Orkney and South Shetland Islands, despite 

 recent assertions to the contrary, are not British, but 

 Argentine possessions. South Georgia is used as a 

 whaling station, and exploited for its sea-elephants 

 and penguins rather than " as a field for 

 mining " (p. $6), though gold and coal have 

 been reported. King penguins do not breed on the 

 Antarctic continent (p. SS)- O" P'a'e 44, Fig. 18, the 

 house shown is not, as stated. Napoleon's dwelling 

 at St. Helena, but quite another building. The state- 

 ment that the Nile floods are caused chiefly by the 

 Blue Nile (p. 53) does not convey the whole truth, for 

 the Sobat and the Atbara largely contribute. Nor is 

 it quite accurate to assert that pearls are formed 

 " round grains of sand or other hard substances," 

 since they are generally formed round encysted larvae 

 of parasitic worms ; and we are at a loss to under- 

 stand who the Buddhists are who figure so largely in 

 the south-western United States on plate 15. How- 

 ever, these are small points, and care and thought have 

 evidently been expended on the work. But a less 

 restricted outlook would undoubtedly have enhanced 

 the value of this atlas. A cheaper edition at 16s. 

 seems only to differ in the binding. 



INDUSTRIAL ELECTRICITY. 

 Electricite IndustrieUe. By C. Lebois. Deuxifeme 

 Partie, Deuxieme Edition. Pp. 437. (Paris : Ch. 

 Delagrave, n.d.) Price 4 francs. 



THE author is Inspector-General of Technical In- 

 struction in France, and on the title-page we 

 read that his work has been honoured by a subscription 

 by the Ministers of Commerce and Technical Instruc- 

 tion. In these circumstances the reader may expect 

 a book of exceptional merit, but in this expectation 

 he will be disappointed. The book is no better and 

 no worse than scores of others with which the market 

 nowadays is flooded. The subtitle is "Second Part; 

 Complementary Study of Continuous and Alternating 

 Currents and Their Applications." 



This subtitle describes sufficiently the contents. 

 We find the usual explanation of the generation of an 

 E.M.F. in the wires of an armature moving in the 

 interpolar space, various armature windings, some 

 examples of brush gear, different forms of magnet 

 frame, the calculation of the magnetisation curve, 

 formula; for the E.M.F. and torque of a machine, the 

 latter called a new formula, although it is certainly 

 not new to English readers, some hints and examples 

 on the design of continuous-current machines, and 

 then a similar treatment of alternating-current 

 machinery, including synchronous and non-syn- 

 chronous motors, for which the author has coined the 

 name " alternomoteurs." 



Further, there are chapters on transformers, measur- 

 ing instruments, meters, and other accessories. The 



